The present invention relates to a fluid processing system for deployment in a subsea environment, and more particularly to subsea systems capable of handling production fluids characterized by high gas volume fraction (GVF).
Fluid processing systems used for hydrocarbon production in subsea environments typically include pumps configured to boost production fluids from a subsea hydrocarbon reservoir to a distant storage facility. Such pumps are generally designed to operate with the production fluids having relatively low gas volume fractions (GVF). Generally, gas slugs may occur due to flow instability of multiple phases of the production fluids. Such flow instability may occur in pipelines deployed for moving the production fluids. Eventually, these gas slugs may enter the fluid processing systems and may cause quick variations of the GVF to higher values.
The pumps receiving such production fluids with high GVF from a fluid inlet or an inlet tank of the fluid processing systems may be damaged thereby affecting overall efficiency of the fluid processing systems.
Thus, there is a need for an improved fluid processing system for efficiently handling production fluids characterized by high gas volume fraction (GVF) and also regulate the GVF of the production fluid being fed to a pump.